Facebook members offered application to peddle products
Program dangles financial incentive for participating
Last Updated: Thursday, March 13, 2008 | 11:22 AM ET
CBC News
A new application aims to inject more commerce into the social networking website Facebook by paying members a 10-per-cent commission on the sale of products they recommend to their online friends.
The program, called Market Lodge, was created by bSocial Networks Inc., which says users don't have to do anything except set up an online store on their profile page, selecting from more than 1,200 products sold by about 50 different merchants.
Conifer, Colo.-based bSocial says Facebook members don't have to handle credit card transactions and commissions are paid through a PayPal account.
Users can also decide who can see the products and when they're shown. The application doesn't monitor purchases, unlike Facebook's advertising system called Beacon, introduced last year to track online shopping activities outside the social networking site.
That system allows third-party sites affiliated with Beacon, such as Amazon, to place javascript code within their pages to transmit information about purchases back to a member's Facebook connections. After a backlash from many users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerman later announced a new privacy control that lets members opt out of Beacon.
Co-founder Sue Speilman says Market Lodge will help small- and medium-sized vendors with a new marketing model at a time when there has been a drop in click rates for online advertising.
More than 100 people have signed up for Market Lodge since it quietly rolled out last week.
For now, Facebook won't receive a cut of the sales made through Market Lodge, but bSocial Networks eventually may consider sharing revenue with the social network or other websites that might be interested in the application, Spielman said.
Market Lodge is just one of more than 16,000 applications that have been designed for Facebook since the social network opened itself up to outside programs. Most of the applications, commonly called widgets, provide the estimated 67 million Facebook users with new ways to play games or share photos or musical interests.
Radical Buy, an application similar to Market Lodge, was launched by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban last November.
A Toronto-based startup called GigPark.com offers an application that allows Facebook members to tell friends about favourite dentists, mechanics and others who provide services.
